« Home | What's so wrong with Terry Long? » | Spider-Man's lost popularity to Batman in sales » | Nightwing will be the most affected character in F... » | Movies starring superheroines aren't selling » | The letter pages from Green Lantern #32 vol. 3 » | Wash. Post fawns over Brian Azzarello's take on Wo... » | The world's oldest comic book comes from Scotland » | The Marvel comic that does a disservice to Britain » | Letter from Excalibur #101 » | Letter scanned from Flash #341 » 

Monday, July 01, 2013 

Is Man of Steel a victim of its own success?

Motley Fool wonders if, while the Man of Steel movie has been a success when it opened, DC still destroyed Superman in the process:
Man of Steel broke the June record for a box office debut and has raked in more than $400 million in ticket sales as of this writing. But is the payoff worth it? Fool contributor Tim Beyers says DC Entertainment parent Time Warner (NYSE: TWX ) is taking a big risk by making Superman unrecognizable at times during the film.

A darker tale, spun by director Zack Snyder with help from screenwriter David S. Goyer and executive producer Christopher Nolan, Man of Steel saw a 65% drop in grosses in its second weekend, according to data compiled by Box Office Mojo.

Could it be because Henry Cavill's Superman is no boy scout? Unlike the common legend of the hero who stands for "truth, justice, and the American way," Snyder and Goyer show us a shy, confused, and angry "hero" who transforms into a living weapon of mass destruction on screen, Tim says.
Sadly, the answer to the question is yes, they've already wrecked Superman in comics, for more than a decade now. Forcing darkness into Superman comics as an overall theme has only hurt it, and the sad thing about the movie is that if they consider the box office grosses so far justification enough, they'll use that as an excuse to inject even more into the comics. They've already done this with the Injustice: Gods Among Us game, and it's pretty apparent by now that it's all part of an editorial mandate extending to the upper echelons of Time Warner.

And when the movie uses an ultra-serious approach that offers little or no sense of humor, that's one more reason why this movie, now that I think of it, isn't bound to leave a long-term impression any more than the movies produced in 1978, 80, 83 and 87, which did rely on some logic holes likely drawn from the older quirks of the comics. I can understand why not everyone's impressed with those in retrospect (even I found Superman's way of erasing Lois' memory of him as Clark with a kiss peculiar in the 2nd film), but turning it too far in the opposite direction can also have some unfortunate repercussions.

Labels: , ,

Heh, I didn't bother to even go see the superman flick. I'm going to wait for it to show up on the movie channel in a year. I'm not interested in Dan Didio's Dark Knight Superman. But I'm an old school fan so there you go.

Post a Comment

About me

  • I'm Avi Green
  • From Jerusalem, Israel
  • I was born in Pennsylvania in 1974, and moved to Israel in 1983. I also enjoyed reading a lot of comics when I was young, the first being Fantastic Four. I maintain a strong belief in the public's right to knowledge and accuracy in facts. I like to think of myself as a conservative-style version of Clark Kent. I don't expect to be perfect at the job, but I do my best.
My profile

Archives

Links

  • avigreen2002@yahoo.com
  • Fansites I Created

  • Hawkfan
  • The Greatest Thing on Earth!
  • The Outer Observatory
  • Earth's Mightiest Heroines
  • The Co-Stars Primer
  • Realtime Website Traffic

    Comic book websites (open menu)

    Comic book weblogs (open menu)

    Writers and Artists (open menu)

    Video commentators (open menu)

    Miscellanous links (open menu)

  • W3 Counter stats
  • Bio Link page
  • blog directory Bloggeries Blog Directory View My Stats Blog Directory & Search engine eXTReMe Tracker Locations of visitors to this page  
    Flag Counter Free Hit Counters
    Free Web Counter

    This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

    make money online blogger templates

Older Posts Newer Posts

The Four Color Media Monitor is powered by Blogspot and Gecko & Fly.
No part of the content or the blog may be reproduced without prior written permission.
Join the Google Adsense program and learn how to make money online.